Bava Batra - Laws of Inheritance

Laws of Inheritance

5. The laws of inheritance are based on Numbers xxvii. 8-11, as interpreted by tradition. Among these is the rule that the husband inherits the property of his deceased wife, her claim in case of the husband's death being settled in the marriage contract (Ketubah). Another rule gives to the first-born son a double share of his deceased father's property. Thus the daughters of Zelophehad are said to have claimed, as their father's property, three shares of the Holy Land (which is assumed to have been divided among the 600,000 men brought out of Egypt); namely, the share of Zelophehad and, as a first-born son of Hefer, a double share of the property of his deceased father (viii. 3). These laws do not interfere with the right of a man to donate his property according to his pleasure (viii. 5).

Complicated cases are dealt with in chap. ix.; such as the simultaneous claims of the heirs, the wife, and the creditors of the deceased; or the conflicting claims of the heirs of the husband and of those of the wife, where the husband and wife are found dead at the same time; the heirs of the former contending that she died first, and that by her death her property became the property of the husband; while the other party contends that he died first, and that the wife's heirs inherit her property.